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Title: Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan by Clay, Jr. Blair ISBN: 1-55750-217-X Publisher: Naval Institute Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Best WWII History Back in Print
Comment: It is a distinct pleasure to see that Silent Victory is back in print. My old hard cover edition is now much the worse for wear, it was great to be able to get a new copy of an old friend. It is too bad that Clair Blair did not get a chance to revise and update it before his death. The book, however, still contains a great deal of information and clearly calls to our attention the superb work of the Silent Service during the Second World War and the great sacrifices that were made to keep the world safe. The book provides great detail about the successful patrols, while not shying away from the hard issues, such as the Torpedo Failures due to improper testing and development, the mismanagement of the submarine fleet early in the war, the loss of life due to the failure to pull old and outdated boats out of combat in a timely fashion, and the individuals who cracked under the stress of combat or highly inflated their sinkings.
And in light of other books detailing Submarine operations since WWII (Silent War - The Cold War Under the Sea and Blind Man's Bluff) it is clear that these brave undersea warriors are still on the first line of defense.
In sum a great book and a must have for every student of history... and we all should be students of History for those who do not study history are doomed to repeat the past.
Rating: 5
Summary: Back in print, this classic account of WWII subs triumphs...
Comment: One of the deadliest weapons used in naval warfare during the two World Wars was the submarine. In the Atlantic, Germany's U-boats did extensive damage to Allied shipping and twice threatened to starve Britain. In the Pacific, the Japanese submarine force, tied to a rigid doctrine of stalking enemy capital ships, scored a few outstanding kills of carriers and the USS Indianapolis but did little to harm Allied cargo ships.
In Clay Blair, Jr.'s Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War against Japan, reissued by the U.S. Naval Institute (the same publishing company to release a Tom Clancy novel) after several decades of being out of print, is a fascinating and detailed look at the officers, sailors and submarines of the Silent Service and their nearly four-year-long campaign against Japan's Imperial Navy and her Merchant Fleet.
Blair, himself a former submariner, pulls no punches and details the many difficulties faced by the American submarine force. Sub skippers who in peacetime were among the best often failed the test of battle. The S-class boats were too slow, had fewer torpedo tubes than the newer T and Gato-class fleet boats. Like Japan's submarine force, targeting priority was on capital fleet units (battleships, carriers and cruisers). Worst of all, the Mark XIV torpedo, the Navy's wonder weapon, proved to be less than wonderful until Admiral Charles Lockwood, Commander, Submarines, Pacific Fleet (ComSubPac) and other officers fixed several defects in the arming mechanism.
But once the Navy fixes most of its personnel- and torpedo-related problems and unleashes the Silent Service against Japanese merchant shipping, the efforts of admirals such as Lockwood, Ralph Christie, James Fife, Robert English (Lockwood's predecessor as ComSubPac before his death in a plane crash) and Richard Voge pay off as hundreds of Japanese freighters, troop transports and, more critically, tankers go to the bottom of the Pacific, crippling the island Empire's ability to sustain its war effort. In conjunction with the loss of island territories to the Allied soldiers and Marines advancing from several directions and the bombing campaign that got underway in 1944, the submarine force had placed a stranglehold on Japan's economy, doing to the Japanese what the Germans had failed to do to Britain.
Highly detailed and full of colorful characters and suspense-filled descriptions of undersea warfare, Silent Victory is a must-read for any buffs of naval warfare and World War II history. Interestingly, this book was cited as one of the sources of information for MicroProse's classic World War II submarine simulations "Silent Service" and "Silent Service II."
Rating: 4
Summary: Silent Victory
Comment: Silent Victory provides us with numerous valuable insights about the lives of submariners who helped subdue a belligerent maritime power. Interspersed with technical data and submarine tactics within the book are the travails and triumphs of the officers and men who fought the undersea war in the Pacific theatre.
Three things struck me while reading this book:
(1) Submarines are of relatively little value if their primary weapon, the torpedo, is ineffectual. Torpedoes, being self-contained and self-propelled weapons systems, must operate reliably under all conditions. Although boats that were then in use had been armed with naval guns, using such rifled weapons required submarines to operate on the surface, thereby largely negating the boats' stealth capability.
Silent Victory describes in detail how the various torpedo problems encountered by the fleet were eventually addressed. The book also paints a poignant portrait of the quandaries submariners faced due to the initial lack of torpedoes in the theatre, the highly disappointing performance of the torpedoes due to design defects, and the resulting negative impact on morale whenever a textbook approach on unsuspecting targets resulted in no sinkings.
(2) With the benefit of hindsight, Mr. Blair points out that the strategic interdiction of Japanese commerce could have dramatically abbreviated the war had the military brass thought of positioning submarines in the Luzon Strait, where numerous convoys and men-of-war transited. Copious accounts of submarines being sent to areas where warships were detected (usually through code-breaking) and then returning home empty-handed are found throughout the book; it is impossible to wade through these accounts without experiencing a sense of frustration.
(3) Clearly, the Imperial Japanese Navy was largely unprepared for the unrestricted submarine warfare imposed by the US on Japanese shipping during the war. Japanese convoys and merchant ships frequently sailed unescorted. Japanese destroyers, in their efforts to destroy US boats, were by and large hampered by ineffectual depth charges. Furthermore, Japanese submarines, which could have served as escorts to these hapless convoys, inflicted little damage on US ships.
From a strategic standpoint, submarines are 'cheap' - unlike a surface ship such as a cruiser, a submarine requires a much smaller crew to keep her in operation (even with a skeleton crew, her ability to inflict damage is relatively unimpaired); the intrinsic minimalism of submarine design meant that repairs can be promptly made while in port; and the asymmetry inherent in submarine warfare made submarines truly effective as offensive weapons during WWII.
As mentioned in other reviews, this is the most comprehensive book about submarine warfare during the Pacific War. I might add that Silent Victory is a good jump-off point for further reading about the subject. One should note, however, that Mr. Blair depended heavily on US sources for his material, although this does not diminish his efforts in any way.
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Title: Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted, 1942-1945 (Modern Library War) by Clay Blair ISBN: 0679640339 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 06 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Clear the Bridge! : The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang by Richard H. O'Kane ISBN: 0891415734 Publisher: Presidio Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Thunder Below!: The Uss Barb Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II by Eugene B. Fluckey ISBN: 0252066707 Publisher: University of Illinois Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Wahoo: The Patrols of America's Most Famous World War II Submarine by Richard H. O'Kane ISBN: 0891415726 Publisher: Presidio Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1996 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Silent Running : My Years on a World War II Attack Submarine by James F. Calvert ISBN: 047119705X Publisher: Wiley Pub. Date: 01 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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